The Mop: Stratford's October Fair and How to Live With It

The Mop is a street fair with rides that shuts the middle of Stratford for two days each October, and it began as a hiring fair. The district council calls it a key date in the Warwickshire calendar, and the road closures below are the practical part for anyone visiting that week.

What it is

Stratford-on-Avon District Council explains the name. The Mop was a hiring fair. Farm workers, labourers, servants and some craftsmen worked for an employer from October to October, and at the end of the year they went to the fair in their Sunday best carrying something that showed their trade. A servant with no particular skill carried a mop head, hence Mop Fair. An employer would talk terms, and a small token of money sealed the deal. The council says the date is set for 12 October, and that in the 1950s special trains were laid on to bring people in for it.

Its legal footing is charters. The council took advice in 2003 that looked at the charter of Edward VI of 28 June 1553, one from James I of 23 July 1611, and one from Charles II of 31 August 1676, which provides that mops or fairs be held in the streets of the borough. In 2004 it asked residents whether the fair should be moved to the Recreation Ground. Of the 813 who replied, 68 per cent wanted it left in the centre, 81 per cent agreed it was part of Stratford's heritage, and 28 per cent thought it had no place on the streets. The council concluded that it should stay where it is.

2026 dates and closures

The council lists the main Mop on Sunday 11 and Monday 12 October 2026. Roads close from 00.01 on the Sunday: Greenhill Street, Rother Street (from Ely Street), Wood Street, Union Street, Bridge Street, Windsor Street (from Mansell Street), Meer Street, Henley Street and High Street. Rides are pay per ride, and the town council lists it as running from 11am to 9pm.

The Runaway Mop follows on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 October. Its tradition, as the council tells it, comes from employers needing to reconsider and re-hire staff before committing to a full year. Its closures are smaller, and cover: Greenhill Street, Rother Street from the entrance to the NCP car park, Wood Street, Windsor Street from Mansell Street, and Meer Street, from 00.01 on the Friday. The council's own text says the Runaway is one week after the Mop, but its 2026 dates are twelve days later. Trust the dates.

What goes on

The council describes the fair as a street fair with a tradition of exciting up-to-date riding machines alongside loyal old-fashioned rides, and it says the Mop has long been renowned for the open roasting of pigs and oxen. Its own history puts the origins of the hiring fair in the reign of Edward III and the statutes of labourers, and it calls the fair a key date in the Warwickshire calendar. Most of those streets are the ones the town lives on the rest of the year: Henley Street with the Birthplace, and Rother Street with its Friday and Saturday market.

How to live with it

If you are driving, do not try to get into the middle of town on those days. The Stratford Park and Ride, off Bishopton Lane, is 10 to 12 minutes from the centre by bus, and the buses run about every 30 minutes for most of the day. Fares from Warwickshire County Council are £2.50 for an adult, £1.50 for a young person and £4 for a group return. Henley Street is among the closed streets, so the Birthplace is reached on foot; check the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust's page for the day. Not everyone on the closed streets loves the fair: the Herald reported one Wood Street restaurateur in February 2025 complaining that the Mop and the food markets cut off trade on his doorstep.

The dates here are from the district council page last updated on 22 September 2026. Check the council again a week before you travel.